ODE VII. TO TORQUATUS. The Torquatus here addressed appears to be the same Torquatus whom Horace invites to supper, Epist. Lib. I. v. Estré, considering there was no ground for Weichert's assumption that this person was C. Nonius Asprenas Torquatus, mentioned in Suetonius (in Vit. Augusti), expresses his surprise that the commentators had not thought of Aulus Fled the snows-now the grass has returned to the meadows, And their locks to the trees; Now the land's face is changed, dwindled rivers receding Glide in calm by their shores. Now, unrobed, may the Grace intertwined with her sisters Join the dance of the Nymphs. "Things immortal, hope not!' saith the Year-saith the Moment Stealing off this soft day. Winter thaws, Spring has breathed; quick on Spring tramples Summer, And is gone to his grave; Appled Autumn his fruits will have shed forth, and then Dearth and winter once more. But the swift moons1 restore change and loss in the heavens, When we go where have gone Sire Æneas, and Tullus, and opulent Ancus, We are dust and a shade.3 Macleane ap 'Damna tamen celeres reparant cælestia lunæ.' pears to me right in differing from Orelli, who refers 'damna cælestia' to the changes of the moon. "Tamen" shows that the changes and deteriorations of the weather and seasons are intended, and 'celeres lunæ' are the quick-revolving months,'; i.e. without metaphor, time Aulus Torquatus, of whom Nepos speaks in his Life of Atticus, c. 11, who had served with Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, and was therefore Horace's old fellow-soldier. Macleane considers the poem to be one of Horace's earlier odes, and introduced to swell the fasciculus-or, as we should say, fill up the volume. I do not see much cause for that supposition. The sentiment is one habitual to Horace at every stage of his life, and it is in harmony with the tone of the epistle, published probably five or six years before the Fourth Book of Odes. CARM. VII. Diffugere nives: redeunt jam gramina campis Mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet Immortalia ne speres, monet Annus et almum Frigora mitescunt Zephyris, Ver proterit Estas Pomifer Auctumnus fruges effuderit, et mox Damna tamen celeres reparant cælestia lunæ ;1 Quo pater Æneas, quo Tullus,2 dives et Ancus, brings back the seasons-time does not bring back us men when we once vanish. Moschus in his idyll on the death of Bion has a somewhat similar idea. Ritter has Tullus, dives et Ancus,' not 'dives Tullus,' observing that there is no just cause for calling Tullus rich, whereas the riches of Ancus were celebrated. Munro adopts Ritter's collocation. I.e., dust in the tomb, and a shade in Hades. Who knows if the gods will yet add a to-morrow To the sum of to-day? Count as saved from an heir's greedy hands all thou givest To that friend-thine own self. When once dead, the resplendent1 tribunal of Minos Noble birth, suasive tongue, moral worth, O Torquatus, Her Hippolytus chaste from the shadows of Hades Lethe's chains coiled around his own best-loved Pirithous, 1 666 Splendida," an epithet more proper of the court and tribunal than of the judgment (arbitria) given. . . . The choice of poetic figure by which to enlarge the simple notion, cum semel occideris,' was probably suggested by Torquatus's own profession as an advocate, alluded to in Ep. I. v. 8, 9.'—YONGE. Ritter takes the epithet as referring to the splendour which surrounded the tribunal of Minos, enabling him more searchingly to inspect the souls whom he judged; and observes that the splendour is here opposed to tenebris,' line 25. Quis scit, an adjiciant hodiernæ crastina summæ Cuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico Cum semel occideris, et de te splendida1 Minos Fecerit arbitria, Non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te Restituet pietas ; Infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum Nec Lethæa valet Theseus abrumpere caro ODE VIII. TO CENSORINUS. On stated times, as in the Kalends of March and January, it was the custom of the wealthier Romans to make presents to their friends. To this custom Horace refers, sending his verses to Censorinus, as the most acceptable gift he could offer. C. Marcus Censorinus was a man of consular rank, bore a high reputation, and died greatly regretted. Goblets and bronzes rare, my Censorinus, I on my friends would heartily bestow; I'd give them tripods, as Greece gave her heroes— Such as a Scopas or Parrhasius wrought,1 Marbles inscribed with a state's grateful praises, Wherein great chieftains live and breathe again : The flights of Hannibal, his threats hurled backward, And impious Carthage perishing in flames, Made not more famed than did Calabrian Muses As his own spoils-a Name. Nor aught thy guerdon, 1 Scopas was a famous sculptor of Paros, according to Pausanias, flourishing about 450 years B.C. Parrhasius, a painter, native of Ephe sus, about 400 B. C. He was a contemporary and rival of Zeuxis. |